PRALIDOXIME (Hansard, 11 April 1994)

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Viscount Cranborne)

Responsibility for the subject of these questions has been delegated to the Chemical and Biological Defence 77WA Establishment under its Chief Executive, Doctor G. S. Pearson, CB. The agency is therefore responding to the question.

Letter to the Countess of Mar from the Director General of the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Dr. Graham Pearson, dated 11 April 1994

1. Your Parliamentary Questions to Her Majesty's Government of 23 March 1994 asking how much pralidoxime was made available for civilian medical use and defence related procurements in each year since 1953 and in what years, in what quantities and at what cost pralidoxime has been imported to and exported from the United Kingdom, and to which nations and states have been passed to me to answer as Chief Executive of the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment.
2. Work on pralidoxime (pryidine-2-aldoxime methyl methansulphonate) for use in the treatment of nerve agent poisoning commenced in the late 1950s at the then Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment at Porton Down (CDEE) and larger quantities were subsequently produced at the then Chemical Defence Establishment (CDE) Nancekuke in the 1970s. Small quantities have been supplied to DHSS, from time to time, to meet their needs for the treatment of casualties poisoned by organophosphorus chemicals used in civilian work. Larger quantities have been produced for defence related procurements as required during the past 20 years; our records do not readily provide the information on the amount supplied in each year.
3. Our records indicate that in the early 1950s and 1960s some of the key intermediate, pyridine-2-aldoximine, was imported from abroad. In 1959, some 10 kg of pralidoxime (pyridine-2-aldoximine methyl methansulphonate) produced at Nancekuke was supplied to the USA; no information is held on the costs involved.